Senate snubs Howard's call to arms

The Senate will not endorse the Government's decision to commit Australian troops to a war with Iraq, insisting it is not in Australia's national interest.

Instead, it is likely to support an amalgam of Labor, Democrat and Greens amendments that Iraq must disarm under the authority of the United Nations.

"The Senate believes [that] in the absence of an agreed UN Security Council Resolution authorising military action against Iraq there is no basis for military action to disarm Iraq, including action involving the Australian Defence Force," the amendment says.

The Government says it does not need parliamentary approval.

Labor's leader in the Senate, John Faulkner, accused the Prime Minister, John Howard, of kow-towing to the United States and surrendering Australian sovereignty.

"The implications of this war will reverberate across the globe," Senator Faulkner warned. "It will make Australia less safe ... [and] weaken our ability to work constructively with moderate Islamic countries.

"... John Howard has surrendered our sovereignty and our independence to the President of the US. ... [He is] sounding more and more like the governor of the 51st state of the US."

The leader of the Australian Democrats, Andrew Bartlett, called on the Governor-General, Peter Hollingworth, as Australia's commander-in-chief, to refuse to sign the order for the commitment of troops.

"The Prime Minister has turned his back on peace and signed Australia up, for the first time in our history, as an aggressor nation, launching an attack," Senator Bartlett said.

He called on the public to express its opposition to "the Government, the Cabinet and its gutless bunch of backbenchers", but was ordered to withdraw the unparliamentary remark.

The National Party leader, Ron Boswell, said it was the most difficult decision Mr Howard, the Government and parliament had had to make. "The easiest thing to do in this world is to do nothing ... But this isn't the Australian way."

The Deputy Prime Minister, John Anderson, told the House of Representatives: "You have to take resolute action against dictators and tyrants if you are to avoid more costly action later on."

He accused France and Germany of engaging in "pretty cheap anti-Americanism" by opposing military action. It was a delusion the UN weapons inspections process was working, he said.

The deputy leader of the Opposition, Jenny Macklin, said Iraq could be peacefully disarmed. She said it was rare for Australia to go to war without bi-partisan support

and accused Mr Howard of dividing the nation by failing to make the case for war.

The Treasurer, Peter Costello, rejected Labor's demands that Iraq be given more time to disarm.

"If Saddam Hussein ... had any intention of disarming himself he would have done so before 2003," he said.

"This is a murderous dictator; this is a Government which engages in systematic execution of its [political opponents]. So we come to this rogue state which defies the norms of the international community."

The Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, said the world's future was now at stake.

Disarming Iraq was the "unfinished business" of the 1991 Gulf War, he said, and every effort would be made to win the war quickly and minimise casualties.

He committed Australia to helping with Iraq's recovery, and emphasised that the aim was to liberate the country, not occupy it.